CHICAGO (Reuters) - A late-season winter storm slammed into
the Ohio Valley on Saturday, forcing flight delays and
cancellations at airports before heading out toward the eastern
Great Lakes and the Northeast.

Canada also was being hit with a winter blast that snarled
air traffic and wreaked havoc on the roads.

Snow totals from Ohio to western New York could exceed 15
to 20 inches by Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
Ahead of the snow, freezing rain, ice and sleet fell from
eastern Kentucky into New York state.

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Ice and heavy, blowing snow closed Cleveland Hopkins
International Airport around 11:45 a.m. EST, the Federal
Aviation Administration said. It was not expected to reopen
until Sunday morning.

The storm extends a brutal season for much of the central
United States, where people have faced some of the heaviest
snowfall and mix of wintry conditions in years.

Chicago was hit on Saturday by lake-effect snows whipped up
over Lake Michigan, and was shivering in the coldest
late-season temperatures in five years.

The city has had its snowiest winter since 1978-1979,
overrunning its snow removal budget and leaving streets strewn
with thousands of potholes.

CANADA DIGGING OUT

A storm that hit eastern and central Canada was expected to
leave parts of the country buried under more than 16 inches of
snow over the weekend.

Many flights to and from Toronto, Canada's most populous
city, have been canceled or delayed, according to the Greater
Toronto Airports Authority. But the city's Pearson
International Airport remained open.

Air traffic also was reported affected in Montreal and the
capital, Ottawa.

Weather advisories were in effect across Atlantic Canada,
from rain and wind warnings in Nova Scotia to snow and
freezing-rain warnings in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and
Labrador.

The storm has resulted in so many car crashes that police
in Ontario were no longer attending crash sites. Instead, they
were asking those involved in a collision to get a tow and
report to a designated center, local media said.

Severe weather ranging from tornadoes to damaging wind
gusts were reported across northern Florida, Georgia, and South
Carolina on Friday and into Saturday.

Rain lashed the eastern Mid-Atlantic region and moved into
southern New England.

Two people were killed by tornadoes that ripped through
Columbia County, Florida, on Friday, authorities said. A total
of four traffic deaths in Ohio, Tennessee and New York state
were also blamed on the weather.

Snowfall by midday on Saturday reached 1 foot or more from
Houston County in northern Tennessee, through Louisville,
Kentucky, to Columbus, Ohio, and Buffalo, New York.

Parts of Interstate 70, which crosses the country's
midsection, from Maryland to Utah, was closed in western Ohio
on Saturday morning.

Conditions hampered cleanup efforts in northeast Ohio from
an ice storm earlier in the week, leaving several thousand
customers without power. Other power disruptions were
scattered.